The Lehigh Valley Phantoms Youth Hockey organization has named St. Luke’s University Health Network as its exclusive official sports medicine provider.

“This is a great relationship for both the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Youth and for St. Luke’s,” said Scott Sargent, President of Lehigh Valley Phantoms Youth Hockey. “This partnership will only enhance our already strong program as we continue to grow youth hockey in the Lehigh Valley.&rdquo.

St. Luke’s will provide a full range of sports medicine services for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Youth Hockey organization. “Lehigh Valley Phantoms Youth Hockey was looking to enhance and expand the sports medicine care of their players, and St. Luke’s was uniquely positioned to address the needs of their organization based on our experience in youth hockey,” said John Hauth, Senior Network Administrator, Sports Medicine Relations, SLUHN.

Added Stephenie Stark, Senior Athletic Trainer with SLUHN: “This new relationship with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Youth Hockey is especially exciting and it is a great opportunity for us to increase our involvement with a very high level of competitive youth hockey here in the Lehigh Valley.

“We will be there on the bench for their games in case of injury so that we can treat the players on-site or refer them for the proper medical treatment with a St. Luke’s sports medicine expert.”

St. Luke’s sports medicine professionals will provide emergency care as well as preventative care throughout the entire season. In addition, St. Luke’s will implement an educational series for coaches, athletes and parents.

Members of the St. Luke’s Sports Performance Team will also be available to train and educate players, coaches and parents.

St. Luke’s will provide on-ice safety classes for coaches and formulate emergency action plans to assist athletic trainers during an on-ice incident.

“We’ll give them everything they need to stay healthy, be competitive and be successful from a sports medicine and sports performance standpoint,” Stark said.

Players at the checking level, ages 14 and older, will also undergo pre-season ImPACT testing to establish baseline measures in case a head injury or concussion occurs.

Consistent with international guidelines, players will not be able to return-to-play until they have been evaluated and cleared by a licensed medical professional.

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms Youth is the premier youth hockey organization in the Lehigh Valley playing out of the Steel Ice Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Phantoms Youth are proud partners of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers. The program consists of Tier 2 teams that compete in the Delaware Valley Hockey League, with teams at every level from Mite (6U) to Midget (18U). They also have teams at Tier 1 (Atlantic Youth Hockey League) and Girls Teams that compete in the Mid Atlantic Women's Hockey Association. The roots of the Phantoms Youth go back to 1975, with the formation of the Lehigh Valley Comets, and 2003 with the formation of the Bethlehem Blast. Those two organizations merged in 2011 to form the Lehigh Valley Flames. In March of 2014, the Lehigh Valley Flames became the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Youth.

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of 14,000 employees providing services at 10 hospitals and over 300 outpatient sites. With annual net revenue of $1.9 billion, the Network’s service area includes 10 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe and Schuylkill counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the region’s first and only regional medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 28 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 226 residents and fellows. St. Luke’s is the only health care system in central-eastern Pennsylvania to earn Medicare’s five-star rating (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health (formerly Truven Health Analytics) repeatedly – six times total and four years in a row including 2018. It has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program. Utilizing the EPIC electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.